TAVISTOCK HERITAGE

Minutes of Meeting 2.30pm Thursday 1st December 2016, Town Council Chamber

Present: Simon Dell (SD) Tavistock Subscription Library Lesley Garlick (LG) County Council Carl Hearn (CH) Tavistock Town Council Christopher Kirwin (CK) Tavi Network Graham Lawrence (GL) Borough Council Alex Mettler (AM) Tavistock & District Local History Society Graham Parker (GrP) Tavistock Neighbourhood Plan Geri Parlby (GeP Tavistock Festival Robert Plumb (RP) Tamar Community Trust / Tamar Valley AONB Gail Reed (GR) Tavistock Festival Cllr Philip Sanders (PS) West Devon Borough Council Martin Searle (MS) THI Project Manager Cllr Debo Sellis (DS) Cllr Harry Smith (HS) Tavistock Town Council Sue Spackman (SS) Devon Historic Buildings Trust Wayne Southall (WS) Tavistock Town Council Tom Young (TY) Tavistock Museum Apologies: Deborah Boden and West Devon Mining Heritage Landscape WHS Tristan Forster Tavistock College Trevor Humphreys DPC Guildhall Project John Taylor Tavistock Forward Andrew Thompson TH Development Officer / Consultant Other Members: Barry Gamble WHS Advisor Paul Williamson Tavistock Business Association

No. Item Action 1. Chairmanship, Introduction and Apologies i) SS introduced the meeting and proposed as, in accordance with the draft Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Forum to be discussed later in the agenda, that she, as Chair of the Trust, should also Chair this meeting on an interim basis until September. RP expressed concern that the ToR were too narrow and that there was potential of conflict of interest for Chair if one of these roles was to “challenge” the Trust. Following a vote, it was agreed five to one, that SS should chair on an interim basis. ii) Those present were welcomed to the meeting and the apologies list accepted.

2. Minutes and Matters Arising from Meeting of 29th September 2016 i) Minutes agreed as true and accurate record ii) Matters Arising not covered by other agenda items: Item 5ii: It was emphasised that it is very important that all volunteer time on the Guildhall Project should be recorded on the timesheet pro-forma provided by Trevor Humphreys All (and attached to these minutes) in order to provide evidence for the ‘in kind’ match to the HLF funding.

Item 6ii: MS confirmed that a short Communications Plan for the THI had been drafted.

3. THI Update i) MS spoke to the Traffic Light report previously circulated and highlighted the key points: a) Butchers Hall works were completed in October and now submitting a further LEAF application to cover fit-out. Hope to appoint manager in March and to be operational by October; LEAF application will require 50% occupancy. HS mentioned that HLF requires clarity with the initial stages but can make changes further down the line b) Three further applications are expected after Christmas, including 9, West Street which is now being moved back to the Priority List. c) MS has established contact with DCC Highways Officer (Ian Hyde) re Market Street / West Street and a meeting with him and GL is being planned for December. DS should be kept informed and would be happy to attend meeting, as can act as a facilitator. MS/DS Cobble repairs not now happening before Christmas due to SWH contract being replaced by Skanska. d) HLF is generally happy with progress on the Complementary Initiatives.

4. Guildhall Update i) CH circulated a written project update by Trevor Humphreys. There had been a meeting with HLF monitor earlier in the day; there is likely to be increased costs related to disabled access, toilet etc and also an increase in the revenue budget for the part-time activities staff. TTC is seeking other funding sources to support these two aspects. ii) SS commented that everyone is now working together well and that there has been good progress on the design of the building and how it will function. The Monitoring Officer also appreciates this good progress. iii) AM mentioned the forthcoming Guildhall Open Day on 3rd December; all are welcome to attend.

5. Tavistock Heritage Trust SS reported on progress with establishing the TH Trust and AT was thanked for all his hard work in progressing this. i) Mission and Vision Statement had been circulated and was agreed, subject to one change at the request of LG, that the initial phrase should read “Tavistock is West Devon’s World SS/AT Heritage town” in recognition of other towns on the WHS in . ii) Draft Articles of Association had been circulated. These are based on a standard template document and have been kept as broad as possible but adapted to reflect the way TH should move forward ie by including more on education iii) Company Registration is progressing and should be in place early in 2017. AM was thanked for his hard work on this. iv) Shadow Board Members - SS circulated a document giving background information on the five trustees – SS, PS, AM, DB, and Daniel Maudlin. The latter is based at University and is contributing on the education side. The Shadow Board is still seeking a Company Secretary and an administrative secretary; any suggestions welcomed. All v) Programme for Creation of Permanent Board – Trustees will be appointed following the due process of the Charity Commission. It is hoped it will be in place by late spring / early summer.

6. Future of Tavistock Heritage i) The draft Terms of Reference for Tavistock Heritage Forum had been circulated. RP re- iterated his concerns that its purpose was broader than was set out in 1. of the Remit Section and that this, together with all the sub-clauses under 2. should be given equal weight. This was agreed and will be re-drafted to reflect this. It was noted that the ToR SS/AT provided for a review every 12 months. ii) SS emphasised the critical need for all parties to work closely together over the coming year and to have closer links with other community organisations in the town, to be joined up and to be an exemplar of good practice. This was supported by DS who felt there was a need to consolidate the silo working that was currently happening.

7. Presentations i) Tavistock Heritage Festival – Geri Parlby and Gail Reed GeP circulated an overview / background to the Heritage Festival. Its development is based on the growing success of the Salisbury model which makes £35k profit, with a footfall of 5.5k people. The Festival in Tavistock needs to grow to a new level and to this end, it has taken on professional support from an event and live interpretation companies which has been personally underwritten by GeP and GR.

It was agreed that the Festival is exactly what TH should be aiming for ie to offer the town as a shop front for heritage, and that it has very similar objectives to the proposed Complementary Initiatives of the THI.

It was also agreed that GeP and/or GR should represent Tavistock Heritage Festival on the GeP/GR TH Forum in future to ensure close working with other organisations in the town. ii) Tavistock Neighbourhood Plan – Graham Parker GP continued the theme of collaboration, joined up thinking and working together in describing the emerging work on the Neighbourhood (NBH) Plan. Tavistock is under pressure from developments such as new housing, and online retailing leading to loss of local businesses. It is still seen as a vibrant town centre but is approaching being “on the edge”. It needs to re-invent itself and rethink its functions (which have had millions £s of investment) beyond retail. However, there are so many groups and organisations working in the town that either duplicates issues or leaves gaps.

A NBH Plan will have full statutory status and will bring together all the strands and will give everyone more weight. It should have three objectives: i) to bring planning policies up to date, ii) to promote ideas from the community and iii) to consolidate all investment in the town. An enthusiastic Group has already begun work on this and Andrew Thompson has volunteered to be involved, as the activities consultant for the Guildhall project.

Issues raised included: a) The need to address commercial issues eg high level of rents in town centre was raised by DS. It was confirmed that businesses are represented on the Group. b) AM feels that the town lacks a Civic Society and that a NBH Plan Group could take on this function c) HS queried the area to be covered and was it just the town centre? The Tavistock TC has already agreed to have a NBH Plan, though it has not yet agreed its scope. TTC would need to be part of the proposed NBH Plan Group when it has been formally established.

SS stressed the importance of TH Forum in bringing together all aspects of the town and it was agreed that GrP would be invited to attend meetings in the future on behalf of the GrP NBH Plan Group.

8. Any Other Business i) CK reported that Tavistock Festival is now a Charity which will enable it to receive support from TTC. The dates for 2017 are 18th April to 7th May and it is hoped that Sinfonia will be part of the programme.

9. Dates of Meetings in 2017 i) The dates of TH Forum meetings for 2017 were provisionally agreed as below; all will be All held at 2.30pm in the Town Council Chamber on: Thursday 23rd March Thursday 22nd June Thursday 21st September Thursday 14th December